How to save money on food and make meal planning less stressful, with Jo from This Mum Cooks – Food For Kids Podcast episode 85

Joanne Roach (00:13)

Hello and welcome to the Food for Kids podcast. I'm Joanne from the Foodies.

Today's show is a real treat for anyone who finds that day-to-day bind of working out what to cook for tea tonight stressful, or for anyone who's finding shopping for food increasingly hard on a budget with everything that's going on in the world right now and the effect on prices. I'm really chuffed that we have an interview with Jo Rourke, who is a super helpful TikTok and Instagram creator and a single mum of three teenagers. She posts incredibly down to earth and practical videos to her hundreds of thousands of followers about how to save money, shop savvy, and meal plan on a budget for a family. She was kind enough to come and share some of her biggest mindset and planning tips for how to make meal planning less stressful as well as save on money and food waste. So let's get straight to those tips.

Joanne Roach (01:06)

So Jo, on this podcast, we try and help parents who are feeling stressed by the job of feeding their family. So what are some of the techniques that you've used to try and reduce the overwhelm of feeding everybody as working mom yourself?

Jo Rourke (01:19)

So I think that we make life too hard for ourselves now. I do wonder when feeding a family got so hard. And I do think it's the onset of social media. I think social media is great, but I think there's so many downsides to it because people think everybody else's houses look perfect. I when I was growing up, breakfast was like porridge, cereal, egg on toast. A packed lunch was a sandwich, a piece of fruit and a packet of crisps. And the evening meal was meat and two veg.

And I think nowadays everyone seems to think that it has to be really fancy even if your kids don't like it and you are completely failing as a you haven't got all of those colours and absolutely everything in their diet, And I think you literally have to take a step back and stop comparing yourself to everybody else and stop listening to all of the advice. You know what your family likes to eat. And if you like to eat pasta three times a week, eating pasta three times a week, so long as you've got other components to that meal, isn't wrong, there's nothing wrong with that. Make food that you and your family enjoy and that gets no complaints, just take the stress out of it. So, maybe make a list of meals that you and your family really like, 10, 15 meals and make a two week meal plan. No one's gonna get bored eating the same meal every two weeks. Do that for a couple of months. And then in couple of months, maybe you want to a couple more meals to that one.

But I think we should be looking at one, how we can reduce food waste in our family. Because if you listen to all of the advice, you will probably end up buying a lot of food that your family don't like and that then in turn makes your food bill really expensive and creates an awful lot of food waste. So buy what your family like, get as much variety as you can in there and don't stress.

Always have one meal in your house that everybody will eat that you can make in 15 minutes. If I can give any parent one piece of advice, it would be this one because as a single parent and I became a single parent of three children under the age of five. Popping out to the shops because I'd forgotten something wasn't a possibility or it was, but it was very difficult to do. So I always had one meal in the house. Now ours, and you don't have to do this one, ours was pasta pesto with sweet corn and grated cheese because the sweet corn and the grated cheese was always in the freezer. But also you can make pasta and pesto. You have that in the pantry. It cooks in 15 minutes with the sweet corn in with the pasta. Stir the pesto through, add on the grated cheese and I could feed my kids any day of the week. Everybody was happy and it took less than 15 minutes. And if you can find that one meal. You will never ever have to stress about things going to pot. If the traffic's been horrendous and it's taken you an extra hour to get home from work in the evening, you know that you've got your rescue meal. It's not the best meal in the world, but actually no one's gonna starve by eating that because you've had a really bad day.

Joanne Roach (04:32)

And I think we put standards of perfection on meals that are That's a decently balanced meal. So lots of your posts are about how to save money on food and in the current financial climate, that's more important than ever. So what are some of your best tips for saving money on family food?

Jo Rourke (04:49)

I meal plan from the freezer. I very rarely buy full price meat or fish. The only thing that I tend to buy full price is chicken. But I will have my fish and my meat for the meals for the week, sat in the freezer that I've picked up on a yellow sticker or reduced in price. I will then go to the supermarket with a list of the fresh or the pantry items that I need to make up those meals, then when I'm in the supermarket, any yellow sticker items that I find, meat or fish, I will then take home with me and pop into the freezer. I think the worst thing that you can do is write a meal plan, go into the supermarket and find a half-price lamb chops and think, that's a really good deal. Let's have lamb chops instead of something that's on the list but I'm not sure what I want to change on the list. So actually you don't know what to take out of your basket to put back on the shelf and you don't quite know what to put into your basket to have with the lamb chops because you've not had thinking time, particularly if you're shopping with young children who are impatient and just want to go home. So you end up grabbing things that you don't need or want, and then you spend more money. The yellow sticker items are going to save you money. Get them, pop them into your freezer, and then use them in the future. And then you get into a routine that you have the meat and the fish for the next week, and you meal plan from that, and then you pick up the reduced price items. It doesn't have to be a yellow sticker item. Pork could be on a special offer half price. And you can just take that and pop it into the freezer for a future meal. But don't change your meal plan when you're in the supermarket because of the offers. Use the offers for the future.

Joanne Roach (06:31)

I like that. So it's a little bit like on a drama show that has a cliffhanger. So at any given time, you're completing the previous episode whilst doing the cliffhanger for the next week, right?

Jo Rourke (06:40)

Absolutely and it's really exciting because you can pick up those things that you don't know how to cook with and give yourself some breathing time as well.

Joanne Roach (06:49)

I think also a lot of people get overwhelmed with meal planning because they start with nothing on a piece of paper. And I think if you've some regular things that you know your family likes, that fills some of the days anyway. And then if you've got things that you bought last week, you can start your planning from what do I do with four lamb chops and three chicken breasts? before you have to start thinking. It's the thinking that gets us, right?

Jo Rourke (07:07)

Yes. It absolutely is and also, if you are on a budget, really look into what a portion size looks like because our portion sizes have grown so much and I think it's a lot down to takeaway meals. So if you a chicken curry for one from a takeaway the amount is easily enough for two people, but they sell it as a portion for one. Why do they do that? Because they can sell more food that way. And also they won't get complaints saying they people didn't get enough food. So they go back because they get plenty of food. And that's okay if it's for a takeaway or a special occasion. But actually if you're eating on a day-to-day basis, the portion sizes that you get in restaurants that you get from takeaways is a lot different to the actual regular portion size that you need.

So when I do a post and I say, this chicken will feed my family of four for three meals, people are like, someone said to me once, but I buy two chickens for four of us for a Sunday roast dinner. And I delved into it deeper and first off, she said that growing up she didn't have a lot of food so that she felt like she was doing the best for her family by providing them with plenty of food. And also she said, we all like chicken breast. So she bought two roast chickens and everyone got a chicken breast. There was reasons behind why she did what she did, but I think people are very, very confused these days about how much they should be putting on a plate of food.

Joanne Roach (08:37)

Yeah.

Jo Rourke (08:41)

Another way that you can save money, and it won't be for everybody, one, it won't be accessible to everybody if you don't live near the shops. And it might just not suit the way that you shop, but I prefer to shop small, frequent, quick shops. There's a couple of benefits that I found to this. First off, I get a chance to pick up more of the reduced price items. Secondly, you don't have to buy all of your weekly veg and fruit at the same time. You're going to reduce your food waste because very often fresh fruit and veg doesn't last the whole week. Some things but some things don't. So by shopping more often than once a week, you will then be able to pick up fresh fruit more frequently and have less food waste.

And also when you shop once a week, you can say, that's my portions of meat or fish for the week. But then when you're looking at the fresh stuff, it's really difficult to gauge how much you're going to get through. So shopping once a week, you're like, well, I might need that and I might need that and I might need that. So more things go into the trolley that you might need When you shop frequently, you think, right, well, I'm having this for tea tonight and this for tea tomorrow. So if I get that and that I know that's going to do those two meals. So I like shopping small and frequent, like I say, it's not going to suit everybody. Some people struggle with aspect of not picking up lots of nice items when you're there. However, again, what I found is picking up that extra packet of biscuits just in case we run out doesn't go into my trolley, because if I fancy it in a couple of days, I can pick it when I'm back in. So I literally go into the shops, buy what I need there and then. Pick up any reduced price items. And I don't have just in case items or what if I fancy items later in the week, I just get what I need and want there and then.

I have virtually eliminated all of my food waste by changing how I shop. The clever things like freezing your leftovers and making use of the freezer is great. But you know, if you want tomato and cucumber, you can't freeze a tomato and cucumber. Very often people will pick up two cucumbers at the start of the week and actually by the end of the week you could have a whole cucumber sat there going rotten. Not only has it wasted you money but it's food waste as well. So it really has eliminated food waste from my house but I know it doesn't suit everybody.

Joanne Roach (10:58)

It's a great tip though. You've been giving out this kind of practical and realistic advice on TikTok and Instagram for quite a few years now. What are the tips you find that people in your comments are consistently surprised by or most grateful for?

Jo Rourke (11:12)

So first off, the more premium supermarkets aren't always more expensive. Now, I suppose this has really got me started because I produced a packet of chicken from one of the more premium supermarkets and I said, this is one pound 50 And they were like, no, you can't buy that for one pound 50. So I took them with me to the shops, showed them where I got it from and the price on the shelf. And people were like, amazed and that really is what got me a lot of traction so I'm really grateful that people didn't believe me. When you go to certain supermarkets you do find a slightly better quality of fruit and veg sometimes and whereby it might cost you five or ten p more it's not going to go to waste because it is of a better quality so sometimes spending a little bit more, now I'm not saying lots more, a little bit more actually may save you money in the long run because it reduces your food waste.

Having a bag of grated cheese in the freezer is an absolute life changer. If you know that you can go in there, grab your cheese it goes straight from the freezer onto a hot pasta dish by the time that plate of pasta gets to your table the grated cheese is defrosted, you don't need to do anything else with it, just put it on there. Not only does it stop the cheese from going moldy in the fridge, it actually saves you time because I don't buy pre-grated cheese because it's so much more expensive than a block of cheese. But if you're on a really quick schedule, you've got to get the kids out to some sort of club that evening, cheese is just another job that you have to do. So if you can go into your freezer, grab a handful of cheese and throw it on your meal, it's going to save you time.

I think people have been quite surprised at the challenge to portion control. So when I look at 800 grams or a kilo of pork,  the supermarket might say it serves four people. And I look at that and I think, no, no, that's going to do at least two evening meals. But so many people say, well, it says it serves four, therefore it does four portions. Actually challenge that, cook it yourself, take what you need and then use it for something else. Actually make it stretch.

Other things that people don't quite understand. What's one of your five a day? A tin of beans is going to be one of your five a day. Sweet potatoes are one of your five a day. Understanding how much nutrition they've actually got in their meals already. So when you make a spaghetti bolognese, onion in the bolognese counts towards that. The tin of tomatoes counts towards that.

When I do my five meals for a family of four for 20 pounds, and I show people what I've bought for those meals. they say, well, you haven't got enough veg there. And I will say, well, actually, there's 40 portions of veg on this counter. that will do everybody two portions of veg with that meal every night for the five nights. That's one meal in a day. You're trying to get to five, if you can get to eight portions of fresh fruit and veg, great, but you're trying to get to five as a starter. That one meal of the day has got two of those in it. Give your children a piece of fruit at the end. That's three of your five in one meal.

So people think they need a lot more than they actually do. And if you want to reduce your you need to start challenging what you think you need.

Joanne Roach (14:39)

I love Jo's no-nonsense approach to family food. It's lovely to get inspiration online, but we do have to be careful that inspiration doesn't turn into expectations for ourselves, especially if they're unrealistic for our own family. We only disappoint ourselves that way when actually we're doing a perfectly good job.

I love her suggestions for ways to reduce the overload of having to try and plan for every eventuality, and her suggestion for a rescue meal that can save dinner on those days that just don't go to plan. Jo has lots more practical tips as well as good ideas for recipes, information on cashback cards and special deals at shops over on her feed at TikTok and Insta where she goes under the name This Mum Cooks. I highly recommend following her because she's unfailingly practical, sensible and kind.

While we're talking about having practical family meals, I'll be back on Monday with five meal ideas for March seasonal foods. So I hope to see you then. And in the meantime, happy eating.

00:00 Introduction

01:06 How to reduce meal planning overwhelm

03:26 Have a rescue meal

04:37 How to save money on groceries

10:58 Jo's most popular and surprising tips

14:38 Summary and outro